Having been a long time Blackberry user, thus reliant on the Blackberry Travel app and finally giving up my beloved Z10, I need to find a new all-in-one travel app. I should point out that BB Travel was hugely under rated and a brilliant app that was free and “just worked”.
TripIT Pro
Having know about it for a few years and heard good things from other travel bloggers, I thought I would turn here first. TripIt Pro has both Web and App (links below) based user interfaces, with the web option being more suitable to ameding complex schedules. Once you have signed up (even to the free version) this is how it works:
- Once you have booked travel with your airline/hotel/car hire/train, TripIt scans and picks up the email confirmations from your designated inbox.
- It compiles the data into their sytem and builds your bookings into an organised schedule.
- The tool then monitors those bookings and alerts you to changes/cancellations and updates you via email/text/app notification.
- You can link TripIt to your Google or yahoo accounts so it can higlight people you know in the areas you are due to visit.
- You can upload a selection loyalty schemes so they can track your points balances.
Did it Work?
Kind of! Some of my straight forward trips it picked up, sorted, and did work. I should point out then when this app works, it is great to have and even put your trust into.
However, it was not all easy going. I had one trip that I thought would be a good test for it. It consisted of:
- 1 x main return international flight
- 1 x nested regional flight
- 3 x different hotels during the trip
What I ended up with was:
- 1 x flight a relative emailled me that they were taking near to the time of mine.
- No sign of my first hotel booking. Even after using the hotel website to email myself the details a second time.
- My nested regional flight had 3 x time changes, only 1 was picked up.
- I then cancelled and rebooked the regional flight, no change on the tool.
In fairness, this was a hectic one to book for me, so expecting an App to correctly pick up and sort this info might be a step to far.
Final Thoughts
Overall I like the look and feel of this App, both on mobile and my desktop. It has some great (and what could become addictive) touches, like the trip counter.
Will I keep it on my phone and continue to use it? Yes. Will I be taking them up on the $49 annual charge for the Pro version? Not just yet.
I will stick with the free version for a while longer to see if the “so so” experience I have had so far is down to user rather than App!
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